26 July, 2017
The online retailer come technology company has plans to boost corporate, research and development staff to more than 5,000 across the trio of sites it has in London; the other two being located in Holborn and Barbican.
Amazon has said it will double its number of research and development roles in London as it opens a new United Kingdom head office boosting its overall workforce with 5,000 new jobs across the country this year. The new specialists will fill positions in software development, user-interface, data analysis and graphic design.
Amazon joins a list of large United States tech firms, including Snap Inc, Facebook Inc and Google, in doubling down on London expansion plans ahead of the UK's departure from the EU.
"This is great news for Britain - Amazon's increased investment in developing cutting-edge technology in London is another vote of confidence in the United Kingdom as a world-leading centre of creativity and innovation", minister for digital, Matt Hancock, said. "We also have hundreds of dedicated software engineers right here in London working hard every day to deliver a fantastic video experience to our Prime members, wherever they're watching on whatever device they are using".
Principal Place will also house other corporate roles from across the company, and it is part of Amazon's investment in the United Kingdom, whereby the company has pumped more than £6.4 billion in building and running its operations here since 2010.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said Amazon's move underlined the continuing attractions of London as the tech capital of Europe.
Amazon is expanding its space in the new building, which features a roof garden and surrounded by new cafes and restaurants, amid nervousness in the property market created by uncertainty over the nature of the UK's divorce from the EU. The increase in support will see Amazon fund up to 24 students annually at Cambridge, Edinburgh and Kings College London universities.
On the other side of the pond, U.S. regulators are reviewing Amazon's $13.7bn acquisition of Whole Foods Market after some groups raised anti-trust concerns - though the deal is still expected to go through, just considerably later than planned.